Inquiries or searches made from a computing appliance such as a personal computer are generally performed by entry of a text string comprising one or more words and submitting this list to a remote computer which matches these keywords or search terms to a list of information accumulated from the public Internet or other networked array of computers and storage media. In general, the entry of text is done deterministically and is achieved by keyboards or their functional equivalents, or else by some manner of handwriting recognition using a touch-sensitive pad or screen. Handwriting recognition methods include symbolic entry, including discrete symbols, as popularized by early Personal Digital Assistants and motion recognition methods, where a sequence of symbols or letters are connected by some stylus or pen motion to give a letter string associated with the resultant shape. Similar technology may be used for ideographic entry.
Transferring this capability to a mobile appliance has been largely disappointing, primarily because such appliances have limited capability for user interaction, due in large part to the small size of the display and to the keyboard having fewer keys than found on a full scale keyboard. Adopting the paradigm of a larger computer platform to a mobile appliance requires the user to invoke a browser session and then create a search entry using the same methods is unwieldy for the majority of cases. Although eventually a browser-like session will be required in order to interact with the Internet, embodiments of the invention may result in a reduction of time and bandwidth use that result from having to invoke a browser prior to any processing being possible.